Spiral Unwinding
by St. Alicon
Summary: In the end, all the boy's efforts, all his hard won triumphs and miraculous victories were for nothing. Jiraiya couldn't believe that he had a hand it. The death of his final student. His hands shook, life could be so cruel.


**A/N:** A/N: The first chapter is short, nothing I can do about that. Hopefully the following ones will be longer.

Some back story!

Spank (I'm sure you have no idea, he's a buddy of mine over at the A Demons Desire Naruto Forums) and I got to discussing the evil Jiraiya thread. It eventually spawned into a debate on whether or not Naruto could have survived actually hitting the ground if he had not summoned Gamabunta inside the Kyuubi's Maw.

Spank, being an unreasonable ass, wouldn't let go of the concept of Kyuubi sprinkling his fairy dust and raising Naruto from the puddle he would undoubtedly become. Eventually we argued ourselves into a compromise . . .

**Spiral Unwinding**

**Chapter 1**

'I-I'm really going to die!' Naruto screwed his eyes shut against the wind. Oh shit, oh shit. Was this really happening? He grunted as the wind tore his jacket away, the force of it altered his trajectory so that he was once again hurling at the wall, the wall supporting a crazy number of stone spikes. He braced himself for the pain.

The first one took him right in the face, breaking his nose and sending bloody globs, of what were presumably teeth, in every direction. The pain was intense. He only just managed a choked scream before the next spike snapped his left leg like a dry twig.

Tumbling head over heels he lost all sense of direction. Not that it really mattered. His mind was blind with white-hot agony. He'd never felt so much pain before. The next spike slammed into the small of his back, snapping his spine with a sickening series of near simultaneous cracks.

Thankfully, he hit it in such a way that he was thrown back into the center of the canyon.

He was near the bottom now, and falling so fast that even if his eyes hadn't swollen shut he wouldn't have been able to see anything, but a blue and brown blur as he spun toward certain death. His brief foray into the canyon's main attraction had barely slowed him down at all.

There is no real way to describe the sound the human body makes when hitting the ground from such a fall. It's something one just has to hear for themselves to appreciate. Regardless, it was not a pretty sound. Blood , liquefied organs, and bone fragments exploded out from the point of impact in a horrible, yet oddly beautiful display. It was like a giant rose blooming and wilting in an instant.

Then there was silence.

The world held it's breath. Wait, was that change it felt, on the horizon?

Naruto's remains began to bubble and hiss, a cloud of steam so thick it obscured everything for yards rose, as broiling red chakra began to seep forth from the bloodied mess. The chakra took the shape of a monstrous clawed hand, outstretched fingers reaching for the sky.

The mass split evenly down the middle. Two hands turned their palms to the ground. Blackened gouges were left where they scrapped at the canyon floor, gathering all the scattered remains of Naruto that they could into one sloppy pile. Their task accomplished, they retreated back into the mess of flesh and bone.

The glistening slop began to steam.

The brain reformed first, followed by two cerulean blue eyes. A skull to house them. Muscle and skin came next. Hair, not being high on the priority list, was left to regrow naturally. It moved on. In this way Naruto was rebuilt from the ground up.

- - - -

Jiriaya witnessed it all. Well, most of it. He landed next to the bubbling pile just as Naruto began to form the beginnings of a new heart. It was enough.

He felt . . . nothing. He wasn't even bothered that he felt nothing. Impassively, the white haired Sage watched as his godson defied the laws of nature.

Yes, he had wanted the brat to unlock the Kyuubi's chakra, but not like this. He had never meant for it to be like this.

Oh, apparently the fox had finished with the heart. It began to beat slowly. Up . . . down. It was disturbing on more levels than Jiraiya had the capacity to feel. Fresh blood splurged onto the already stained gravel. Odd that that should bother him, when the rest didn't seem to.

He watched the rest in silence. He learned more about human anatomy in that short period of his life than he ever had in his entire career. When Naruto was whole, and the chakra siphoned back into the seal, which looked as good as it ever had, he picked him up and took off for the hospital.

His hands shook, ever so slightly.


End file.
